1. Field of Art
This application relates generally to the field of online sales and distribution systems and, in particular, to an interactive system that facilitates complex transactions by employing branded characters that persist across multiple platforms throughout the various stages of such transactions.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the advent of the Web in the early 1990s, online transactions conducted via the Internet have continued to grow at exponential rates. Virtually every conceivable product or service is currently available online, whether directly to consumers or among businesses at various stages of the distribution chain.
As technology has improved, online transactions have proliferated due to the development of transaction processing infrastructure, greater bandwidth and storage capacity, as well as improved interactivity and the use of high-quality graphics, animation and even video to showcase products and services online. For example, digital products such as software and music can easily be purchased and downloaded today from a vast array of online merchants. Transactions involving “physical” products, such as clothes and furniture, are not much more complex, with online shipping arrangements replacing the download process. In addition, many services are performed online today with relative ease, from learning how to type to renewing a vehicle registration.
Nevertheless, certain types of products and services are less amenable than others to effective online distribution. Transactions involving such products and services are relatively complex in that they require consumers not merely to compare features and prices, but also to educate themselves to determine not only which product or service to purchase but whether or when to purchase a particular product or service based upon personal profile and other information specific to consumers and their families. For example, insurance products and other financial services often involve a host of other factors beyond features and prices, such as differing payouts across a wide range of hypothetical future scenarios.
It is well known in the insurance industry, for example, that one of the key obstacles to selling insurance products is the high cost of customer acquisition. Whether employing a direct sales force or independent agents and brokers (or a combination of the two), insurance carriers face the problem of leveraging relatively expensive insurance agents and brokers among prospective customers who span a wide range of demographic profiles and who, to put it simply, do not trust insurance salesmen. Young adults represent a particularly difficult demographic in that they are less likely to think “long term,” and rarely purchase optional insurance coverage beyond the basic health plan offered by their employer or policies required for regulatory reasons, such as auto insurance.
Moreover, insurance products are inherently complex, which increases not only the cost of customer acquisition but also the length of sales cycles. Demonstrating the value to a prospective customer of a particular insurance product, such as a long-term disability policy, often requires obtaining personal information about the customer, as well as educating the customer about the potential benefits provided by the policy in various future scenarios. An insurance agent might be very knowledgeable about the details of long-term disability policies, and yet know next to nothing about term life insurance. Servicing multiple areas of expertise requires a greater number of agents and brokers, or at least ones with greater expertise, further increasing customer acquisition costs.
It is not surprising then that insurance carriers, as well as agents and brokers, are looking to the Internet for ways to leverage limited human resources to target large numbers of prospective customers with an array of complex products requiring multiple areas of expertise. For example, companies such as Univers Workplace Solutions of Hammonton, N.J. and Impact Technologies of Charlotte, N.C. provide technology that assists employers and financial service providers in automating certain aspects of the sales process for employee benefits and various financial services, including certain insurance products. In 2007, Assicurazioni Generali SpA, a major European insurer, announced the opening of its Generali Virtual island in Second Life, staffed with live agents (though this does little more than mimic how insurance is sold today).
Yet an automated solution to this problem is hampered by the inherent complexity of these products and their relatively long sales cycles. While attempts have been made to employ artificial intelligence (Al) technology to simulate intelligent agents that can provide automated responses to user queries (see, eg, U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,585) or perform sales transactions (see, eg, US Pat App No 20010032140), no fully automated solutions to selling complex insurance and other financial service products have yet emerged.
Moreover, as noted above, prospective customers do not trust insurance salesmen and do not typically initiate the process of searching for insurance products to purchase. They are often unaware of the need for such products and unwilling to take the time to be educated as to when they should purchase a particular product. LIMRA (the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association) routinely gathers statistics that illustrate the decline in the purchase of life insurance policies, for example, citing many of these same reasons and noting that prospects need proactive contact to motivate them to purchase policies.
Companies such as Virtuoz of San Francisco, Calif. and Oddcast Inc of New York, N.Y. have sought to employ lifelike avatars to appeal to customers and provide a more “human” experience during what is otherwise an impersonal automated sales process. Other companies, such as Millions of Us LLC of Sausalito, Calif. have utilized virtual worlds, online gaming and social media as part of immersive brand marketing campaigns designed to create brand awareness.
Yet, such technology has not been employed to engage consumers throughout the entirety of a complex sales and distribution process. What is needed is a system that can attract prospective customers and retain them throughout the various stages of a long and complex sales cycle.